liberty. despite surviving superstorm sandy the statue of liberty remains off limits to visitors. >> this is the "cbs morning news" for wednesday, december 5, 2012. >>> good morning. good to be with you. i'm terrell brown. we begin with negotiations to avert the so-called fiscal cliff both republicans and white house hold their lines and no formal talks yesterday. president obama said he wasn't ruling out some reductions in entitlement programs such as medicare and social security, meanwhile house speaker john boehner has to win over hard liners in his own party. susan mcginnis is following it all. >> reporter: hi. good morning. there are some glimmers of common ground here among the two sides that could form the basis of a deal. the president is now talking about actually lowering the tax rate for the top 2% not now but later. and republicans are now taking some heat over their latest plan a lot of it from within their own party. >> five, four -- >> reporter: house speaker john boehner led the countdown to the lighting of the capitol hill christmas tree last night. >> one. >> re

. >> reporter: good morning. we'll find out today just how much superstorm sandy slowed job growth when the labor department releases the november employment report. on thursday the government reported weekly applications for jobless benefits fell sharply. the decline suggests the return to modest job growth that plunged during sandy's aftermath. some economists believe fewer than 100,000 jobs were added in november but others say if not for sandy job gains would have been at their highest since february. asian markets were lower. tokyo's nikkei lost a fraction while the hong kong hang seng also shed a fraction. michigan a long time bedrock of union employment could soon become the nation's 24th right to work state. protesters rallied at the state house and senate on thursday. both chambers passed separate bills banning mandatory union dues from non-union members. the republican governor said he would sign the bill when they are sent to him. tech stocks gave wall street a modest lift. the dow finished 39 points higher on thursday while the nasdaq was up 15 points. apple one of the tech

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